Bishop's Second Kill
by Marathon Zack 140.6
Summary: Bishop-centric story with lots of guns. Stand-alone from my previous NCIS stories, but can be read as a continuation of those if you liked them. Post-13:18 "Scope", but before Tony leaves. P.S. There are lots of guns, so if you're easily offended by guns, do us all a favor and skip it.


**A/N: Bonus cookies to anyone who knows what tv show the FBI agent's name comes from.**

* * *

Gibbs and Bishop were standing near the middle of the banquet hall. Gibbs was talking to Homeland Director Morrow, while Bishop idly looked around, wondering where they were hiding the food at this gala. While this wasn't really her scene, she enjoyed these gatherings more than say, Tony, did because she could at least put her analytic skills to use, analyzing all the big wigs who comprised the majority of the guests at these functions; Tony had spent most of the speeches flicking paperclips at a pretty girl from the CIA, who had taken it surprisingly well, and the two of them were now off in a corner chatting. Well, at least she _hoped_ that's all they were doing at the moment.

Before she had time to check on Tony, though, Gibbs turned towards her. But before he could say anything, they heard a rapid volley of gunfire coming from a room just on the other side of the wall to the right of the ballroom they were currently in. As the majority of the guests began to panic or try to get the highest security risks to safety, Gibbs pulled out his gun from under his coat, and Bishop reached through the hidden slit in her dress and grabbed her gun that she kept strapped to her thigh. Gibbs quickly surveyed the room, and the situation.

"Bishop, go with DiNozzo and cover the right side," he said, pointing over to where Tony was waving people out of the way on the far right side of the room.

Bishop hurried over to where Tony was, as Gibbs headed the opposite direction to where McGee stood by the other set of doors on that side of the room.

"Where were you hiding that!?" exclaimed Tony, as Bishop appeared by his side with her Sig out and by her side.

"It's called cleavage, Tony," replied Bishop with a roll of her eyes, knowing it would get a rise out of him.

Tony gave her a brief shocked look, before collecting himself and focusing on the task at hand. Bishop figured that she should probably at some point inform him that that was not, in fact, actually possible, and that she just had it strapped to her thigh, but if he didn't know that already after working for NCIS for a decade and a half or more, and being a cop before that, maybe she wouldn't bother disabusing his notion as to where girls in fancy dresses hid their sidearms (even if she was the one who had just given him the notion). But seriously, hadn't Ziva taught him better?

Looking across the room, Gibbs signaled for them to burst into the hallway through the doors. Both teams did so, quickly clearing the hallway. Unsurprisingly, the shooter was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing no one, Gibbs motioned Bishop to the door set in the side of the hallway, the most likely location of the shots, while also motioning to Tony and McGee to clear the ends of the hallway. Both of them moved to the door, and on Gibbs' command, Bishop shoved open the door. Gibbs burst in, immediately followed by Bishop, and the two of them quickly cleared the room. With nobody in there, Gibbs returned back outside to where Tony and McGee had returned empty handed, leaving Bishop to look around to see if that was in fact the origination of the gunshots they'd heard. A few moments later Bishop returned, holding up a spent casing.

"That's a whopper," said Tony, looking at the casing she was holding.

"Desert Eagle," she replied, needing to say no more.

"Explains why the shots were so loud through cinderblock walls," said McGee. "What were they shooting? I assume you didn't find a body."

"The computers," replied Bishop. "I assume they're the security system, but that's your department."

Gibbs nodded to McGee, who disappeared into the computer room.

* * *

After processing the crime scene, the quartet found themselves in the Big Orange Room standing around a blank tv screen, since it was a Saturday night, and the plasma wasn't usually set up on the weekends, especially after hours on the weekend.

Bishop briefly wondered what someone would think if they walked in at that moment and saw three men and a lady dressed to black tie standards, standing around a blank tv. But then Gibbs said "What do we know?", and any such thoughts quickly disappeared from her mind.

"Shooter used a fifty cal Desert Eagle to destroy the security computers. Large caliber for maximum destruction while still being easily concealable," said Bishop.

"They presumably used the service entrance to enter and exit, Abby's trying to recover any data she can from the hard drives," continued Tony, absentmindedly try to click the clicker he'd picked up without thinking.

"But the complex's security system will be down for at least a couple days, which is most likely what the shooter was after," chimed in McGee. "I talked with the head of security, and they're storing several expensive paintings in one of the secure storage rooms. Except now those storage rooms have no cameras or electronic locks."

"So this is all about an art heist?" asked Tony.

"Looks that way," replied McGee.

"We'll get DC police to place guards around the storage room until they're moved," said Gibbs, moving around his desk to call the DC police.

"Hold it!" came an unknown voice from the area of the elevator. "I can't let you do that."

The intruder strolled up to them like he owned the place. "Agent Eurus, FBI. We've been tracking this art thief across twelve states. We now know exactly what he's targeting, so we've got a perfect opportunity to capture him here, and I can't let you guys mess this up."

The over-cocky youngster came to stand in front of them.

"We'll run teams of two hiding in the storage facility, starting as soon as the police vacate the security room crime scene. Which should be sooner rather than later, I put a call in. And since I can't be there the whole time, Agent Gibbs has been cleared to have point on the floor when I'm not there. Agent Bishop will be with me, since she's the least experienced, and I can't have her messing this up, leaving Agent DiNozzo with Agent Gibbs. The computer nerd will run surveillance."

The three younger agents looked in shock at the newcomer as he spoke, before turning to look at their boss to see how he was going to react to this usurping of his control. But at that moment, Gibbs looked up to the balcony, where Vance had just stepped out of his office. Vance gave Gibbs a helpless grimace, having just received a call from the FBI saying they had point on this mission. So Gibbs, without looking at the FBI agent, replied, "I have the first shift," as he moved over to his desk and pulled out his gun.

* * *

Agent Eurus motioned that he was going to go check on something else real quick, and disappeared. Bishop grumbled to herself for the hundredth time that night that she'd gotten stuck with Agent Idiot. But Agent Idiot had insisted that either he or Gibbs had to be there at all times, and then proceeded to pair up Tony with Gibbs. It was the fourth shift she'd taken, and it was sometime around 02:00 Monday morning the last time she'd checked her watch. Only a couple more hours until her shift was over.

About five minutes after Agent Eurus had skedaddled, Bishop heard a noise at the front of the storage room. She pulled her gun out, and moved stealthily from her hiding place to get a better view of the intruder. But just as Bishop was about to announce her presence, the thief saw Bishop's reflection in the shiny surface of one of the picture frames. The thief spun around, pulling out her own gun as she moved. As Bishop saw the thief pulling out her gun, she quickly ducked behind a shelving unit. The thief fired several shots at the corner of the shelving. When the thief paused, Bishop spun around the edge of the shelves and fired three quick shots of her own. The thief crumpled to the ground, dead. Keeping her gun trained on the still figure, she moved over and kicked the Desert Eagle out of the thief's hand.

Looking around, she suddenly wondered where the hell her "partner" was, which promptly reminded her that he had been obsessively adamant about capturing the thief, and would not be happy to find the thief dead; especially at the hands of the "least experienced" agent, who he already thought was going to mess up his mission.

So Bishop quickly called Gibbs, hoping he would get there before Agent Eurus returned, and she could at least explain to Gibbs what had happened before she had to face an irate FBI agent with a power complex. Gibbs quickly arrived, and to her astonishment, Gibbs had heard her story and cleared her to leave without Agent Eurus ever making an appearance.

She caught a ride with McGee back to NCIS as he took the first round of evidence back to Abby to begin processing. But when they pulled into NCIS, instead of going with McGee to visit Abby, Bishop headed down to the morgue, where she knew it would be several hours before Ducky would return with the body, giving her plenty of time to be alone.

It wasn't the first time she'd had to kill someone in the line of duty, and like in Afghanistan, it was the other person, or her. But unlike the first time, this lady was merely an art thief, not a terrorist who was helping torture a Marine and kill a translator. So while she knew she'd done the right thing, and the only thing she could have done, she was still having a hard time with it, and just wanted to be alone for a while. It really _wasn't_ easier the second time.

Several hours later, she startled awake as she heard Ducky returning with the body. She quickly exited the dark morgue before Ducky came in with the body, and decided to pay Abby a visit to see what she had gleaned from the crime scene evidence.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL DID SHE KILL HER FOR!" screamed Agent Eurus as he burst into the Big Orange Room, yelling at Gibbs, and Tony, and probably anyone else who was unfortunate enough to be in the nearby vicinity.

Bishop had just been coming up from checking in with Abby in the garage when she heard the exclamation, and took that as her cue to turn around and head back out the way she'd came in, hoping Agent Abandoned-Her-In-The-Middle-Of-A-Stakeout hadn't seen her. With or without rule 6, she sure as hell wasn't about to apologize for protecting herself in a situation she never should have been in in the first place. But she wasn't particularly familiar on rules covering punching idiots in the face, and she wasn't sure she could be around Agent What-The-Hell at the moment without punching him in the face.

If Gibbs needed her, he could call. And she really needed to spend less time around Tony if her creative nicknames for their FBI "friend" was any indication. She was also surprised that Agent Eurus had just _now_ found out about the shooting; Gibbs and Tony had to have been back at NCIS for at least an hour by this point.

* * *

Tony found Bishop thirty minutes later in the NCIS indoor shooting range. He hung by the entrance, unnoticed, watching her mag dump into what was now a fairly shredded silhouette target. She had certainly gotten good, Tony thought to himself as he watched her, or at least she was when she was angry.

When she had unloaded her last magazine, and set her gun down to start reloading, Tony walked over to her, leaning against the lane partition. For a while, Bishop just ignored him, reloading her mags.

"New gun," she finally offered in explanation, as she began reloading her last magazine. "Needs rounds put through it."

"There's a difference between putting rounds through a gun," Tony replied as he leaned over her shoulder and hit the return button on the target, watching it come back to them, "and completely destroying a target like _that_ ," pointing at the groupings on her target. "Although nicely done on the groin shots. See, this is why I'll never understand why Jake thought cheating on you was a good idea."

Bishop chuckled lightly at that, relaxing slightly and setting down the magazine she was holding.

"Fine. I'm letting off some steam," she conceded, finally looking up at her teammate.

Tony smiled back at her, before picking up her Sig, inserting her half-loaded magazine, and stepping around the lane partition into the neighboring lane, unloading it into the target that had been left halfway down the lane. When he had emptied it, he handed her gun back to her.

"I think you've had enough pistol practice for today. Come on," he said, motioning towards the door.

Bishop inserted a fresh mag into her gun and dropped the slide release, holstering it. Then she gathered up the rest of her mags, and followed Tony out of the range. But instead of hitting the elevator button to go up to the Big Orange Room, he took them to the garage.

"You do _not_ want to be in the Bullpen right now," he said in explanation as they stepped into the garage. "We're going for a ride," he continued as he moved over to one of the Chargers, waving to Abby, who was working on the suspect's car on the other side of the garage. "Don't worry, it's a Gibbs-approved trip."

Bishop got into the passenger's seat, and they drove in silence for a while before Bishop finally asked, "Where are we going?"

"We're almost there, you'll see," replied Tony, and they lapsed back into silence.

Ten minutes later, Tony turned down a small dirt road, and up to a fairly nondescript, small store, with a large, long field behind it.

"It's a rifle range," said Bishop, looking at the building and the surrounding countryside.

"Official long-distance range of NCIS and most of the other federal agencies around DC," answered Tony, opening the door and getting out. "I'm all for letting out steam on targets, Gibbs just thought it would be good if you used it to hone in your rifle skills; and to get you out of the office until Agent Eurus cooled off a little more. We don't do much sniper work in the line of duty, but it's good to be able to do it in case the necessity ever arises."

"I assume we're not shooting my dad's hunting rifles here," replied Bishop.

"Nope," said Tony, popping open the car trunk, revealing an assortment of fine weaponry. "Unless your dad hunts buffalo at a mile, which I guess could be possible in Oklahoma."

"I'm not sure this would even be useable on an elephant, at two miles," she replied, lifting up the Barrett M107A1 case that was on the bottom. "Unless you wanted shredded elephant straight from the bone, maybe even already cooked if you've got incendiaries."

Tony chuckled as he closed the car trunk and picked up the .300 Win Mag and .338 Lapua cases he'd set on the ground.

"That's for when the elephant's hiding in an armored car. The buffalo in Oklahoma never take refuge in armored cars?" he joked as they walked towards the building.

Ten minutes later, Bishop found herself staring down the scope of a .300 Win Mag. It certainly wasn't the first time she'd shot a rifle, but it was the first time her target was 500 yards away. It was going to be a daunting task to hit 1000 yards.

* * *

Late that afternoon, Tony and Bishop walked into the Bullpen. Gibbs and McGee were there, but no irate FBI agents were to be seen.

"Our friend gone?" asked Tony, as he and Bishop sat down at their desks.

"I assume so," replied Gibbs, looking up. "After he refused to accept Bishop's account of the incident, I sent him up to talk to Vance. Haven't seen him again."

Looking over at Bishop, he asked, "How did shooting go?"

"I certainly have a new appreciation for what you did. What you do," replied Bishop. "But I hit 1000 yards a couple times, so not terrible."

"She was quite good for never having shot over 400 before," insisted Tony, bragging on his teammate. "Better than McGee was the first time he went long-range shooting. Bish didn't fall on her butt firing the .50 standing, either."

McGee cringed, remembering the first time he'd fired the Barrett .50 bmg. "Yeah, but you probably let her shoot it lying down first, didn't you, so she had an idea of what it felt like."

"Nope. She was just smart enough to lean into it, and not try to shoot standing straight up with her feet in a straight line."

During this banter, Bishop looked over at Gibbs, who was giving her a proud smile. He knew his youngest agent would make him proud.

Stepping in to prevent a real argument between Tony and McGee from occurring, Gibbs turned towards the two of them and said, "You two are free to go home whenever you like. Bishop, you still have all the paperwork that goes with killing a guy to fill out."

"Blah," replied Bishop, staring down at the mound of paperwork on her desk.

"Have fun with that," said Tony with a grin as he walked past on his way to the elevator.

An hour later, Bishop finally signed her name on the last form, and dropped her pen down on her desk with a loud clatter. Standing up and stretching briefly, she walked over in front of Gibbs' desk.

"Done."

Gibbs nodded, and stood up. As they walked towards the elevator, Gibbs asked, "How are you doing?"

It was the first chance he'd really had to ask how his youngest agent was handling her second kill.

Bishop sighed for a second, before replying, "Okay. Not happy about it, but I'm okay. Better than I was after Afghanistan. Going to the range helped take my mind off of it for a while. So thank you."

"You needed the training and the distraction. Might as well get both in at the same time. And a Barrett always makes everything better."

And with that, they stepped into the elevator and headed home.


End file.
